I've put the kettle on, so come in and make yourself comfortable. Get out your knitting or whatever craft you want. And don't mind the dogs, they'll settle down.

Thursday, September 07, 2006

Needles Flying

I've had a block about what to blog about. There's nothing going on, I'm not in a reflective mood, and I'm staying busy with other things.

So, here's one of the things I'm busy with:

This lovely shawl-to-be is called an Aran Pocket Shawl and is in Folk Shawls. It's also my grandmother's Christmas present. I hope you can see the pattern; it's really pretty. But, the pattern is in sets of 18 rows and I'm not used to it yet. So, it took me over 3 hours to knit 5 inches. This shawl is 87 inches long. I'm in for a lot of knitting. Luckily, this yarn is gorgeous to work with. It's Jo Sharp Silkroad and is made up of wool, silk, and cashmere. And even better, I got it on sale! There is a downside to that, however. As I'm knitting, I'm looking in my sack of 16 balls of yarn, worrying that I'm going to run out before I finish. And this yarn was on clearance. Maybe I should do a search on the web and get a couple of more. I still have so much to learn about knitting, and one of those things is to know how much yarn to get if I'm substituting a different yarn. Oh well. It'll be beautiful anyway. And my Nana would love anything that I made, that's what Nanas do best.

Kell - It looks gorgeous. I think I had this book out from my library several times. Is there folk shawls from several countries and modeled by the author? If so they were all beautiful but too complicated for me. I just liked going page by page over and over to admire them. Your yarn looks beautiful and I hope it holds out...try WEBs online or Ebay if things get critical. You are inspiring me to pick up my needles.

chelle p--yes, I got some books on CD the other day. I'm actually kind of giddy with the idea of just sitting, listening, and knitting!

saz--that's the book! This is one of the simpler patterns. It's pretty much just knitting and purling, and the pattern is pretty repetitive, so it's easy to get the hang of. One of these days I'm going to try my hand at the lace patterns. One day. And thanks for the web tips. I'll head over that way.